A reversible window rotates. Release the catch, swing the sash in, keep going, and the pane that was facing the weather ends up facing into the room. You clean the outside of the glass standing on your own carpet.
For a top floor flat, a stairwell window, or anything above a roof or an extension where a ladder is not going anywhere, that is not a convenience. It is the only safe way the window is ever going to get cleaned.
How the rotation works
The sash hangs on two pivot hinges, one on each upright, set part way up rather than at the top or bottom. Because the pivot point is inboard of the frame, the sash can swing through and past itself instead of fouling the reveal.
Getting to that position is a two stage business on purpose. In normal use the window opens a limited amount on the pivots, held by a friction mechanism, and a restrictor stops it going further. To reverse it fully you release that restrictor deliberately, usually with a catch on the side of the sash, and then rotate it right round. Some systems then have a safety catch that locks the sash in the reversed position so it cannot swing back onto your fingers while you are cleaning.
The friction in the pivots is what holds the sash wherever you leave it. When a reversible window starts swinging shut on its own in a draught, or feels heavy and vague, that friction has gone and the pivots want servicing or replacing.
Where they are the right answer
High level windows of any kind. Second floor and above. Flats where there is no safe standing outside. Stairwell and landing windows over a rear extension roof. Bedrooms in dormer conversions. Anywhere the outside of the glass has not been touched since it was fitted.
They are also good on wide openings, because the pivot hardware carries weight better than a friction stay does.
The trade offs
They come into the room, so the same caveats as tilt and turn apply. Curtains, blinds and anything on the sill have to be clear before you can reverse the sash.
You need a bit of floor space to stand in while the window is rotated. In a narrow bathroom that can be tight.
They cost more than a plain casement.
And they are not a style choice. Nobody looking at the outside of your house can tell a reversible window from a casement, which is the point. You fit one because of what is on the other side of the glass, not because of how it looks.
Living with one safely
Reverse it fully before you start cleaning, not part way. A sash left half rotated is on the wrong side of the friction and can move.
Check that the reversed position catch has actually engaged before you lean on the glass.
Do not reverse a window in a strong wind. The sash becomes a sail and the pivots are not designed to take a gust broadside.
Keep the restrictor working. It is there so that nobody, particularly a child, can put the window into full rotation by accident. If yours has stopped holding, that is a repair worth doing straight away rather than at the same time as everything else. The same reasoning is behind window restrictors generally.
Once a year, oil the pivots and the friction slides and work the sash through its full travel a few times.
Repairing rather than replacing
A lot of the reversible windows around Wishaw and Motherwell went into flats and housing stock in the eighties and nineties, and quite a few of them still work perfectly. What tends to fail is the hardware rather than the frame.
Pivot hinges wear and the sash starts to drop or bind. Restrictors snap. The reversing catch seizes. Friction slides polish smooth and stop holding. All of those are parts, and all of them come out with the frame staying exactly where it is.
Reversible hardware is more specialised than casement hardware, and some of the older systems are genuinely obsolete, which is why several firms will not take the work on. We usually can. If we cannot get the part, we will tell you that plainly rather than string you along.
Start at our window repair page, or send a photograph of the hinge on the edge of the open sash, which is what tells us what system you have.
Other styles
Casement for the standard outward opening window, tilt and turn for two modes from one handle, flush sash for period frontages, vertical sliding sash for the traditional Scottish sash and case look. How we quote replacements is on the replacement windows page.
Ask us
If you are not sure what you have got, photograph the window open, from inside, with the edge of the sash showing. That one picture usually answers it.
WhatsApp it across, or ring 01698 604 278 between eight and five, Monday to Friday. Contact us here.
Written by the team at Wishaw Window Repairs. Over thirty years repairing and replacing uPVC windows and doors across Lanarkshire.